MORGANTOWN — It wasn’t but two weeks ago that headlines about West Virginia University’s football team mentioned their backs were against the wall. A 1-2 start after blowing a 10-point lead in the final five minutes against Pittsburgh had pundits wondering how the Mountaineers would respond for the rest of the season.
Signs were pointing in the right direction two weeks ago after WVU erased an 11-point deficit in the final 5:39 of the game to rally past Kansas, 32-28. That had the Mountaineers feeling good as they entered a bye week and a chance to heal from the early slate.
Now West Virginia will return to action Saturday against an Oklahoma State team in a similar situation to what the Mountaineers were facing before the break. After opening the season with three-straight wins to place themselves in the nation’s top 25, the Cowboys have lost their last two and tumbled out of the poll.
Any hope for the Cowboys (3-2, 0-2 Big 12) of returning to the Big 12 title game would likely vanish if OSU begins the conference schedule at 0-3. So the Mountaineers (2-2, 1-0 Big 12) know that, while Oklahoma State might not be desperate, it will be hyper-focused in winning Saturday’s 4 p.m. contest (ESPN2).
WVU head coach Neal Brown said this week recent history has shown that a short in-season skid doesn’t always derail the Cowboys’ entire season.
“They’re coming into this game off two losses, but if you look at what they did last year, playing in the Big 12 Conference Championship game, they had two losses in a row, too. That was South Alabama and Iowa State, and they rebounded to get all the way to the conference championship game.”
The Cowboys were stunned at home against South Alabama and then suffered a road loss to the Cyclones to fall to 2-2, but rallied to win seven of their next eight to qualify for the Big 12 title game. Several of the key cogs in that machine are back, though not all of them are operating at the level they were last year.
Oklahoma State returns its top passer Alan Bowman, top rusher Ollie Gordon II, top receiver Brennan Presley and top defender Nick Martin. Yet Gordon — who gashed WVU for 282 yards and four touchdowns last season on his way to winning the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back — is averaging just 66.8 yards per game this year. And Martin’s status for Saturday is up in the air after suffering an apparent knee injury in last week’s loss to Kansas State.
That was the second-straight loss OSU suffered to a nationally ranked conference foe. Before falling to then-No. 23 Kansas State, the Cowboys lost to then-No. 12 Utah.
“They’re going to be ready to play coming off two losses,” WVU tight end Kole Taylor said. “I think that they’re going to come out with fire, kind of where we were in the same situation … backs against the wall, ready to fight.”
The Mountaineers opened conference play with a win for the second-straight year and would like to make it two in a row for the second-consecutive season as well. West Virginia has some of the same components that confounded Oklahoma State last week against Kansas State, namely a mobile quarterback.
Last week, KSU’s Avery Johnson threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more to beat the Cowboys. WVU quarterback Garrett Greene can dazzle with his arm and feet as well. Against Kansas, he threw for 295 yards and two touchdowns and ran 87 yards and another score.
“You got to stop their quarterback — he’s a good runner. Very similar to what we saw last week (against Kansas State). Coach Brown has done a good job with him,” Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy said of Greene. “Experience has helped him. And I’m guessing that the relationship he has with his play-callers and position coach helps them. They’re further along now just from experience. And he’s been good at rushing the ball and they do a good job with that.”
Brown admitted this week that, given the choice of playing a team coming off two wins or one coming off two losses, he’d pick the team with two wins. He knows how determined Oklahoma State will be to end its slide and despite their struggles, the Cowboys will be ready.
“You’re playing an experienced staff,” Brown said. “And they’ve proven to be able to get their team back. They’ve proven that multiple times over the last several years. So once that game kicks off, I’m not sure it matters.”
— Story by Derek Redd
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